Recruitment and Succession in a Tropical Benthic Community in Response to In-Situ Ocean Acidification

PloS One
Elizabeth Derse CrookAdina Paytan

Abstract

Ocean acidification is a pervasive threat to coral reef ecosystems, and our understanding of the ecological processes driving patterns in tropical benthic community development in conditions of acidification is limited. We deployed limestone recruitment tiles in low aragonite saturation (Ωarag) waters during an in-situ field experiment at Puerto Morelos, Mexico, and compared them to tiles placed in control zones over a 14-month investigation. The early stages of succession showed relatively little difference in coverage of calcifying organisms between the low Ωarag and control zones. However, after 14 months of development, tiles from the low Ωarag zones had up to 70% less cover of calcifying organisms coincident with 42% more fleshy algae than the controls. The percent cover of biofilm and turf algae was also significantly greater in the low Ωarag zones, while the number of key grazing taxa remained constant. We hypothesize that fleshy algae have a competitive edge over the primary calcified space holders, coralline algae, and that acidification leads to altered competitive dynamics between various taxa. We suggest that as acidification impacts reefs in the future, there will be a shift in community assemblages away from uprig...Continue Reading

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Jun 19, 2013·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Elizabeth D CrookAdina Paytan
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Mar 7, 2014·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Adina PaytanLaura Hernandez

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Citations

Jan 11, 2021·Global Change Biology·Ben P HarveyJason M Hall-Spencer
May 10, 2019·Emerging Topics in Life Sciences·M James C Crabbe
Sep 22, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Molly A TimmersRobert J Toonen

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